1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to fuel delivery devices and fuel delivery systems and, more particularly, to a fuel device incorporating an electronic compensation device that enables the fuel delivery device to process incoming fuel delivery commands in accordance with information that is specific to the fuel delivery device or to store the information that is specific to the fuel delivery device.
2. Description of Related Art
Internal combustion engine designers have increasingly come to realize that substantially improved fuel supply systems are required in order to meet the ever increasing governmental and regulatory requirements of emissions abatement and increased fuel economy. In most fuel supply systems applicable to internal combustion engines, fuel injectors are used to direct fuel pulses into the engine combustion chamber. In general, internal combustion engines having injection devices are well known. With such engines, the precise amount of fuel being injected is crucial in the control of the fuel injection system. However, injection control characteristics of the fuel injection systems inevitably suffer from the deformation and wearing out of parts in addition to changes in the physical characteristics of the fuel.
Specifically, conventional fuel injectors and fuel delivery systems experience problems due to variations in, and between, the individual injectors. In particular, each fuel injector is unique in that each injector will be at least slightly different from any other fuel injector due to inevitable variations in part-to-part manufacturing tolerances of hydro-mechanical components. Additionally, each of these fuel delivery devices deliver an amount of fuel that is dependent upon environmental variations such as temperature. The amount of fuel being delivered may also vary because of sensor variations in the fuel system. Moreover, fuel delivery devices change their fuel delivery characteristics during operation as they wear.
One conventional fuel system manufacturer provides injectors that have been labeled with bar codes which incorporate manufacturing information. When the fuel injectors are installed, the fuel system controller reads the bar codes and stores the manufacturing information for each injector. In this manner, the fuel system controller receives specific manufacturing information for each individual fuel delivery device when a device is first installed. However, this information is not updated on a real time basis and the system is not able to react in real time to environmental changes at the fuel delivery device.
A fuel delivery system is needed which is relatively insensitive to environmental and sensor variations, while simultaneously reducing manufacturing tolerance requirements.
It is an object of the invention, therefore, to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art and to provide a fuel delivery system which is relatively insensitive to environmental and sensor variations, while simultaneously reducing manufacturing tolerance requirements.
It is another object of the invention is to provide a fuel delivery device which includes an electronic compensation device capable of adapting commands received from a fuel system controller to the specific characteristics of the fuel delivery device.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide a fuel delivery device which includes an electronic compensation device that includes information regarding the particular fuel delivery device. For example, the information may include test data, such as control curves, actuator delays, drain flow, injector cup flow, control orifice flows and the like; manufacturing data, such as orifice sizes, spring installed heights, spring loads and the like.
It is still another object of the invention to provide a fuel delivery device which includes both an electronic compensation device and a dedicated sensor that provides feedback to the electronic compensation device. For example, the sensor may incorporate a lift sensor that generates a lift signal based upon the position of the needle valve. The lift signal would be communicated to the electronic device which would then adjust the fuel delivery commands from the fuel system controller to provide the desired lift performance or would store the lift signal. The sensor may also be adapted to detect environmental information such as injector and fuel temperature, start of injection, end of injection, common rail pressure, accumulated hours, number of injection cycles and the like.
These and other objects of the invention are achieved by providing a fluid delivery device that includes a fluid delivery valve, an actuator that opens and closes the fluid delivery valve and an electronic device.